Characteristics and Outcomes of Safe Discharge Planning Bioethics Consultations of a Single Ethics Service at a Large Medical Center

AbstractBackground: Clinical ethics consults are sometimes requested for patients who lack capacity and do not assent to discharge recommendations, particularly those with neurocognitive or psychiatric disorders desiring home discharge. Balancing the risks and benefits of overriding patient preferences involves considering dignity, values, clinical information, and available resources. Outcomes of such consultations lack characterization in the literature. METHODS: We examined clinical ethics consultations from December 2015 to June 2023 at a large, urban academic medical center serving a diverse community with high poverty rates. Time to readmission and proportion readmitted within 30 days were analyzed by discharge disposition. RESULTS: Among 1,163 ethics consults, 167 were for discharge planning. The median age was 65.4. Of these, 56.7 percent were male; 29.9 percent, Black, non-Hispanic; 26.9 percent, Hispanic; and 19.1 percent, White, non-Hispanic. More than 37 percent had a psychiatric diagnosis, with a similar percentage affected by dementia. Discharge to skilled nursing facilities (SNFs), home without nursing care, home with nursing care, subacute rehabilitation facilities, and elopement constituted 33, 26, 26, 2, and 2 percent, respectively. The discharged-to-home group showed the highest average days to readmission (243), while the average for the discharged-to-SNF group was 153. These differences were not statistically significant when controlling for age, gender, and comorbid conditions. CONCLUSIONS: Half of the patients consulted for discharge planning were discharged home and were not at higher risk for early readmission. This higher-than-expected percentage may reflect increased attention to patient values when bioethics is involved.